BookRiot on 30 Haunted House Books that will Give You the Creeps
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Ah, October. The month when I finally catch up on all the all the spooky reads I’ve been hoarding all year.
Back in July, Jessica Avery at Book Riot posted a fine survey of 30 Haunted House Books that will Give You the Creeps. Who wants to read haunted house novels in July? But now that the evenings are getting cold and leaves are starting to fall off the trees, a young man’s thoughts naturally turn to… creepy houses and buried family secrets. So I returned to Jessica’s piece, and it features some very intriguing titles indeed. Here’s the highlights.
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (FSG Originals, 288 pages, $15 paperback/$2.99 digital, August 1, 2017)
This addition to the list was recommended to me as being just absolutely read-through-your-fingers frightening. In one of those plots familiar to many haunted house books, Julie and James need to get out of the city and end up settling in a house in the country. But what was supposed to be a fresh start for the troubled couple soon turns into a nightmare. As the house seems to misshape and decay before their eyes, Julie and James rush to discover its history before they follow suit.
[Click the images for October-sized images.]
The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics (Harlequin Teen, 272 pages, $18.99 hardcover/$9.99 paperback/$8.99 digital, September 27, 2016)
YA haunted house books have a real obsession with spooky Victorian houses. Not that I can blame them — as far as architectural choices go, Victorian is a doozy. It can either be your Grandma’s cozy house, or it can be a freaking suburban Crimson Peak. Lucy Acosta and her cousin Margaret grew up in what was, apparently, one of the latter. Her mother died when she was just a baby, then her aunt vanished while walking in the woods, and now Margaret is spending too much time in the attic. Where, she says, she can hear the whispers of her dead mother in the walls.
The Good House by Tananarive Due (Atria, 496 pages, $25 hardcover/$7.99 paperback/$15.99 digital, September 2, 2003)
Angela Toussaint has not been back to her grandmother’s house — the house the townspeople of Sacajawea, Washington, call the Good House — in two years. Not since her son Corey died. But she’s finally ready to return and discover the truth — about Corey’s death, about her Grandmother, and about the Good House.
In addition to those three, the article includes half a dozen books we’ve covered here over the past few years.
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Here’s the links.
Nathan Ballingrud on Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
The Graveyard Apartment, by Mariko Koike
The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, reviewed by Matthew David Surridge
Read the complete article at Book Riot.
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Read all our recent Book coverage here.
The title The Women in the Walls immediately made me think of L’Erin Ogle’s “The Coven of Dead Girls” (PseudoPod 651), which is from the POV of ghosts of bodies hidden in walls. Reading your description and also looking up the author of TCoDG, I quickly realized they had nothing to do with each other, but now I need to listen to TCoDG again. 🙂
My oldest daughter and I began a tradition three years ago: we call it “Western Wednesday,” and every Wednesday night, we watch a different Western film. Since October is her favorite month, and Halloween her favorite holiday, she was hoping there’d be more scary Westerns to watch beyond “Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula” (awful), “Cowboys and Aliens” (more SF than horror, but we stretch the requirements occasionally), and “Bone Tomahawk” (frightening beyond belief). Last week we watched “Ravenous,” thematically close to “Bone Tomahawk” but not as grim. I spend the entire month reading nothing but horror fiction, and I’m almost finished with Lovecraft’s “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” (I have the Ballantine Adult Fantasy version Lin Carter edited). Thank you, John, for posting this piece about some new gems to seek out for the rest on the month!!
“… OF the month, not “on.”
Hey Smitty, you might want to check out The Burrowers for some excellent western horror. Cowboys vs. nightmare creatures from the depths of the earth.
Glad somebody else loved/was impressed by Bone Tomahawk. I understand it has critical acclaim and many fans, but I’ve encountered plenty of folks who seem quite indignant that they saw a horror film which actually horrified them.
John Hocking: Thanks for the recommendation! That’s one I’d gone ahead and ordered on BluRay, along with “Dust Devil” and “Django Kill.” I also recorded “Into the Badlands” (1991) with Bruce Dern, on my DVR. Seems to me like the Western/Horror combo is territory vastly unexplored…